Yarn twisting apparatus



March 19, 1968 c. 1.. LOVELAN'D 3,373,557

YARN TWISTING APPARATUS Filed Jan. 6, 1966 INVENTOR dVff/f? 4101 4 ANDATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,373,557 YARN 'I'WISTING APPARATUSChester L. Loveland, Dalton, Pa, assignor to US. Textile MachineCompany, Scranton, Pa, a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Jan. 6, 1966,Ser. No. 519,993 y Claims. (Cl. 57119) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLGSURE In ayarn twister combination a yarn guide means having the construction of abearing and a ring traveller having a yoke assembly attached at itsclosed end to the traveller and having a freely rotatable grooved rollermounted within the open end.

The present invention relates to yarn twisters and in particular to aring traveller and yarn guide for use in a twister.

The present invention finds application in a twister in which a bobbinis rotated and the yarn is guided to the bobbin first through a yarnguide coaxial with the bobbin and then through a ring traveller whichslides along the inner periphery of a guide ring which surrounds thebobbin.

In the presently known yarn guides, the yarn moves around the innerperiphery of a stationary ring in a manner which, after a period ofusage, wears the inner surface of the ring away, and eventually causesuneven and improper guiding of the yarn.

In the presently used ring travellers, the yarn is passed through thering traveller in one or even two right angle bends, causing strain andfrictional wear on the yarn and ring traveller, resulting in theweakening of the yarn and eventual wearing away of the surface of thering traveller.

It is, therefore, a general object of this invention to provide, in ayarn twister, a ring traveller and yarn guide which will substantiallyreduce the wear on the yarn during the twisting operation.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide, in a yarntwister, a ring traveller which reduces the strain and wear on the yarnand which also reduces the wear on the ring traveller during thetwisting operation.

It is yet a further object of this invention to provide in a yarntwister a yarn guide in which the wear on the guide is substantiallyreduced during the yarn twisting operation.

In accordance with the present invention, the yarn guide has thestructure of a bearing having inner and outer races and antifrictionelements therebetween. The free rotation of the inner race, throughwhich the yarn is guided, results in reduced wear over the inner surfaceof the inner face.

The lower section of the ring traveller, according to the presentinvention, is formed to embrace the inner periphery of the ring whilepermitting sliding of the ring traveller therealong. Disposed at theupper end of the ring traveller is a freely rotatable roller over whichthe yarn is guided on its way to the bobbin.

The advance of the yarn causes the roller to rotate thereby reducing therelative friction between the yarn and the traveller, and also reducingthe strain on the yarn and the wear on the ring traveller.

This invention finds particular advantageous operation when used intwisting coated yarn. As both the yarn guide and ring traveller rotatealong with the yarn, there is substantially no relative motion betweenthe yarn, and the yarn guide and ring traveller. Resultingly, there willbe virtually no removal of the coating from the yarn during the yarntwisting operation.

Further objects and features of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed specification below when-studied inconjunction with the appended figures which form part of the applicationand in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a yarn guide and ringand-traveller meansof the invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the ring traveller according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is an end view of the ring traveller of FIG. 2 as it appears fromthe left of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the ring traveller of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of a yarn guide according to the presentinvention;

FIG. 6 is a cross section, taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is an elevational view of a second embodiment of a ringtraveller;

FIG. 8 is an end view of the ring traveller of FIG. 7 as it appears fromthe left of FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 is a top plan view of the ring traveller of FIG. 7.

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a typical rotary bobbin 1 havingan upper circular end flange 2 and a lower circular end flange 3. A ringguide 4 coaxially surrounds the bobbin and is carried by anunillustrated rail.

Ring 4 has an inner circular peripheral flange 5 slidably embraced bythe ring traveller 6 which is slidable therearound. A yarn guide 7 isfixedly disposed above and coaxial with the bobbin 1.

Yarn 8 is first passed through the passageway 9 within the guide 7 andthen passes therefrom through the ring traveller 6. The yarn 8 is thenwound onto the bobbin 1 by the rotational movement of bobbin 1 whichcauses the ring traveller 6 to move around the ring 4. The bobbin 1 isalso moved axially with respect to the ring 4 so that the yarn 8 buildsa package on the bobbin.

FIGS. 2 through 4 illustrate a preferred embodiment of the ringtraveller according to the present invention. As shown in the figures,the lower portion of the ring traveller 6 consists of an upper hook itand a lower book 11 connected by a shank portion 12. The lower portionis formed in one integral piece and is made of a substance such asmolded nylon or plastic. The hooks are shaped to firmly fit around andslide on the inner periphery of the ring 4 as shown in FIG. 1.

A bracket 13 is fixedly mounted on upper hook by means of a pin 14.Bracket 13 has two upstanding spaced ears l5 and 16 oppositely disposedfrom one another. Through the upper section of each of the ears l5 and16 extends a pin 17 upon which a roller 18 is mounted for free rotation.The roller is formed with a groove defined by two truncated conicalsurfaces 19 and 20 which are connected at their small ends by means of acylindrical shaft 21, around which the yarn 8 passes in a simple arcwhile advancing to the bobbin 1.

The bobbin 1 is rotated and axially displaced by motion producing meanswhich are well known in the yarn winding art and are therefore notfurther shown or described in this application. The rotational movementof the bobbin pulls the ring traveller around the inner periphery of thering 4. Because of the angular lag between the points of engagement ofthe yarn with the ring traveller and the bobbin, the roller 18 has anaxis making an angle a with a straight line normal to a radial planeincluding the bobbin axis. Angle on may be in the range of 1545 and ispreferably about FIGURES 5 and 6 illustrate the basic construction ofthe ball bearing yarn guide 7. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the ballbearing guide comprises an outer race 22 and an inner race 23. Extendingdirectly from and integrally formed with outer race 22, is a mountingelement or extension 26, which is adapted to be mounted onto a bracket(not shown) to place the yarn guide in proper orientation with respectto the bobbin, as shown in FIG. 1. A passageway 9 is formed by innerrace 23 to permit the passage of the yarn 8 therethrough during thetwisting operation, as shown in FIG. 1.

Between races 22 and 23 are disposed antifriction elements formed by aseries of balls 24, and the bearing is preferably of the self-aligningtype. In accordance with this construction, when the yarn passes alongthe inner periphery 25 of the inner race 23 the force exerted by theyarn on the inner race 23 will cause the inner race 23 to rotate withrespect to outer race 22, thereby reducing the wear on the surface 25caused by the yarn during the twisting operation. Due to the rotation ofthe inner ring 23, the wear on surface 25 will be uniform, therebyinsuring that the yarn will continue to be uniformly guided even afterlong usage of the guide 7.

FIGS. 7 through 9 illustrate yet another embodiment of a ring travellerembodying the inventive features of the present invention. Withreference to these figures, a ring traveller 30 is shown having an upperhook portion 31, a lower hook portion 32 and a shank portion 33. Thehook portions 31 and 32 and the shank portion 33 cooperate to firmlyengage with and slide along the inner periphery of the ring 4 shown inFIG. 1. Extending rearward of the hook portions, to the left as shown inFIG. 7, and integrally formed with the shank portion 33 are triangularextensions 34 and 35, which form a yoke assembly. Each extension has apassageway formed therethrough, through which a pin 36 is placed forrotational movement. Upon pin 36, a roller 37 is rotatably mounted sothat the pin and roller combination is free to rotate within the spacebetween extensions 34 and 35.

During the yarn twisting operation the yarn is passed from above thering traveller 30, around the roller 37, to extend to the left of thering traveller as shown in FIG. 7. The yarn is then formed onto thebobbin as shown in FIG. 1. Roller 37 is formed with an arcuatecylindrical groove over which the yarn passes during the twistingoperation. The yarn moving over the roller surface, causes the rollerand pin to freely rotate therewith, so that there is virtually nofriction between the yarn and the roller surface, nor is there relativemotion between the yarn and the roller surface.

While I have described certain embodiments of my invention, I desire tohave my invention not limited by the embodiments shown, but rather bythe scope of the claims which are appended below.

What is claimed is:

1. In a yarn twister combination having a bobbin, yarn guide meansspaced from and coaxial with said bobbin, a guide ring surrounding andspaced from said bobbin, and a ring traveller embracing said guide ring,the improvement comprising a yoke shape assembly attached at its closedend to said ring traveller, said assembly having a grooved rollerrotatably mounted within the open end of said yoke and adapted to passsaid yarn from said guide means to said bobbin through a simple are.

2. The combination of claim 1, wherein said yarn guide means is parallelto and coaxial with said bobbin and has the construction of a bearingprovided with an inner race through which the yarn moves, an outer racesurrounding said inner race, and anti-friction elements between saidraces.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said roller comprisesoppositely directed coaxial truncated conical segments each having largeand small ends and a cylindrical shaft interconnecting said small endsof said segments and defining said groove therewith.

4. The combination of claim 2, further comprising a mounting elementintegrally formed with and extending laterally from the outer race.

5. A combination as recited in claim 2 and wherein said bearing is aself-aligning ball bearing.

6. A yarn twister combination according to claim 1, wherein saidyoke-shaped assembly comprises an upper hook and a lower hook connectedby a shank portion, said yoke-shaped assembly being carried by saidupper hook and having two spaced upstanding ears, said roller extendingbetween and being rotatably carried by said ears.

7. The combination according to claim 1, wherein said yoke-shapedassembly comprises a pair of separated lateral extensions, and whereinsaid roller extends between and is rotatably carried by said extensions.

8. In a yarn twister combination, especially for coated yarn, having abobbin, yarn guide means spaced from and coaxial with said bobbin, aguide ring surrounding and spaced from said bobbin, and a ring travellerembracing said guide ring, the improvement comprising a yokeshapedassembly attached at its closed end to said ring traveller, saidassembly having a grooved roller rotatably mounted within the open endof said yoke-shaped assembly and adapted to pass said yarn from saidguide means to said bobbin through a simple are, said roller having anaxis defining with a straight line normal to a radial plane, whichincludes the bobbin axis, an angle of between 15 and 45.

9. The combination of claim 8 and wherein said angle is approximately25".

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,834,874 12/1931 Schaatf 57l25 X2,020,873 11/1935 Bowen 57125 X 2,127,082 8/1938 Delagrange 571252,198,791 4/1940 Schaaff 57---119 2,314,740 3/1943 Sherman et al. 571252,869,313 1/1959 Vibber 57-58.83 X 2,942,407 6/1960 Morin 57-125 FOREIGNPATENTS 296,224 8/1928 Great Britain.

WILLIAM S. BURDEN, Primary Examiner.

